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10 Things You Didn't Know About Channing Tatum

In this week's Hollywood Reporter cover story, the 'Foxcatcher' star opens up to THR about his short stint as a college student, divorce rumors and the 'Magic Mike' sequel

Channing Tatumhas already proven himself as a dancer, an action star and a comedian. Now, with his latest role in this month's Oscar-buzzy film Foxcatcher, the Step Up alum seeks to prove himself as a dramatic actor.

The film will take place a few years after MagicMike and will follow Tatum's character, Mike, on a road trip to a stripper convention. In the late 1990s, Tatum actually traveled to a convention like the one that will be portrayed in the movie.

"I have no idea why it's called a convention," Tatum says. "The 'convention' was not strippers peddling stripper technology or anything like that. It was just a big show with 50 to 70 strippers and 2,000 to 3,000 women. It was crazy. They attacked me every night."

3. All of those divorce rumors are "bullshit."

Tatum is pretty upset about tabloids alleging that he and his wife, actress Jenna Dewan Tatum, are gearing up for a $50 million divorce. "It's all bullshit," he says. "These people just [make it up]. Some of our family members don't see [it's not true], and they read a stupid thing and don't understand it's a tabloid."

"My dad was like the town tough guy," explains the Jump Street star of his father. "No one wanted to mess with my dad. Of course, I was his kid. I had to push." Tatum went on to explain that his father never hit him but that he did inflict the occasional corporal punishment, adding, "Nothing that people would be weird about."

5. Baby No. 2 may not be too far off.

When asked if he and Dewan Tatum were thinking about adding one more to the family, the actor said "it really depends if Jenna's show [Lifetime's Witches of East End] gets picked up for a third season. Then we would probably wait." On Tuesday, Lifetime said it will not be renewing the supernatural show.

The actor said he and his wife are considering moving from their current Hollywood Hills home to Ojai. Tatum said he would be "immensely happy" in a more rural locale, saying, "I just love the country."

7. College isn't for everyone.

Before he started stripping, Tatum did a semester at the University of South Florida where he had a panic attack in the middle of a history class. "I had to walk out of the class because I was like, 'I can't imagine doing this for another four years. I can't imagine sitting in this class or doing numbers on a board.' "

8. Tatum put his blood, sweat and tears into his Foxcatcher role ... but mostly his blood.

In one scene for Foxcatcher, Tatum was required to hit his head against a mirror that was coated with a protective plastic sheath. "But he punched that thing with his head three times and shattered it,” recounts director Bennett Miller. “When we took the mirror down, there was a hole in the wall. And he actually cut himself, and you see his blood in that scene.”

9. He wants to clear some things up about his “functioning alcoholic” comment.

In a previous interview, Tatum referred to himself as a "functioning alcoholic" but he believed his words were taken out of context. "It was something said that wasn't meant to be factual.” He further explained: “I'm constantly a flip-and-flop of extremes. All I meant was that I do things in extreme."

10. According to his friends, Tatum has more in common with 19th century philosophers than you would think.

Tatum has proven himself to be a savvy businessman and is committed to conquering all aspects of the filmmaking process. He is planning his directorial debut with MagicMike writer Reid Carolin. "There's something inside him that is really intolerant of anything other than ascending in an almost Nietzschean way," explained a friend. "He's enormously competitive, enormously ambitious."